Love the look of fresh flowers, but can’t afford to get fresh delivered bouquets on a regular basis? Today’s silk flowers offer a great alternative. With many looking just as fresh as the real thing, today’s silk variations offer the look of real flowers without the cost. Plus, they allow you to fix a lovely vase and keep it indefinitely.

The only problem with silk flower arrangements is that they can get looking a bit, well, dirty, if not cared for properly, and nothing looks worse than dirty silk flowers gracing a vase.

Water:

Swish your silk flowers in a sink full of warm water with 2-3 tsp. of gentle dishwashing soap. Let air dry on a towel. This usually works well to remove dust and dirt that accumulate on the petals.

Hair Dryer:

Try blowing the dust off of your silk flowers using a hair blower on low speed (outside of course!). Be careful to make sure that the heat does not loosen the glue connecting the stem and petals.

Shaking It With Salt Or Dried Rice:

Shaking silk flowers in a plastic bag with a few teaspoons of salt also helps to remove built up dirt and dust.

You can also put silk flowers into a bag full of dried rice and give it a few shakes. You will be surprised at how much cleaner your flowers look.

Use The Shower:

Rinse the flowers under a soft warm spray of water in your shower. It’s simple and effective. No cleaning products necessary.

Vinegar:

The vinegar approach: A 50/50 mixture of white vinegar and water can also be effective (when sprayed) on less delicate silk flowers.

The Old-Fashioned Way:

Cornmeal too can be used to shake off dirt from silk petals. Just add a few tablespoons of dried cornmeal to a plastic bag; add your silk flowers and shake.

As you can see, there are quite a few different methods for cleaning silk flowers and some work better than others. A lot depends on how delicately the flowers you are cleaning have been made.

One final tip: always be sure to test any cleaning method on one or two flowers first to ensure that no damage is done from the cleaning solution or method tried. Once you have found a good way to clean your silk flowers, be sure to do so regularly to keep them looking freshly picked form the garden.